Judge's Verdict Rejects Nadiem's Claims on Chromebook Procurement Losses

The panel of judges has determined that the state losses in the alleged corruption case of the education digitalisation programme, involving the procurement of Chromebook laptops and Chrome Device Management (CDM) within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) from 2019 to 2022, amount to Rp2.18 trillion. These losses are in accordance with the calculations by the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP). “This is in line with the testimony of the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) in the trial and the public prosecutor (JPU),” stated Judge Mardiantos during the reading of the panel’s verdict at the Corruption Court in the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday. The judge’s statement contradicts the claims of former Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim, who previously rejected those calculations. According to Nadiem, the Financial and Development Supervisory Agency (BPKP) had openly admitted in the trial that they did not compare the purchase price of the Chromebook laptops with market prices. Judge Mardiantos then detailed the losses, comprising Rp1.56 trillion related to the education digitalisation programme at Kemendikbudristek, as well as 44.05 million US dollars or equivalent to Rp621.39 billion due to the unnecessary and unbeneficial procurement of CDM in the education digitalisation programme. Furthermore, he specified that the state losses related to the education digitalisation programme at Kemendikbudristek consist of Rp127.9 billion in 2020, Rp544.6 billion in 2021, and Rp895.3 billion in 2022. Meanwhile, he continued, the state losses due to the CDM procurement in US dollars were converted to rupiah based on the lowest exchange rate from August 2020 to December 2022, at Rp14,105 per US dollar. The panel of judges read out this determination of state losses in the verdict against the Director of Primary Schools (SD) in the Directorate General of Early Childhood Education, Basic Education, and Secondary Education (Ditjen PAUD Dikdasmen) at Kemendikbudristek for 2020–2021, Sri Wahyuningsih, along with the Director of Junior High Schools (SMP) in the Ditjen PAUD Dikdasmen at Kemendikbudristek for 2020–2021, Mulyatsyah. To both of them, the state losses in the case that are imposed are only during their tenure, namely in 2020-2021, both in the digitalisation programme and the CDM procurement.